Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Turkey and White Bean Chili with Chocolate

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, December 2013. This recipe was first posted in 2007 when I was excited about an article in the Deseret News that spotlighted my blog and mentioned some other food blogs too. Utah is having an unusually cold winter this year, so it seemed like the perfect time to make this chili again and update the photos!)

I wasn't the biggest fan of ground turkey when I first tried this recipe, but it's low in fat and healthy and it's really grown on me through the years. I'm glad that back in 2007 when I saw a recipe in The Bon Appetit Cookbook for chili that used white beans, ground turkey, and just a taste of unsweetened cocoa powder, I was game to give it a try. This recipe is a bit spicy with very generous amount of ground Ancho chile powder, some regular chili powder, a little ground Chipotle chile, plus dried oregano, ground cumin, and cocoa powder for that hint of chocolate that makes it so good. (You can certainly use a bit less of the spicy chili powders, which I would recommend if you're making it for kids.) Here in Utah we're hoping for some warmer weather, but I have some of this in the freezer for those remaining cold days I know are still coming.

Just for the heck of it I mixed up the beans with one can of pinto beans and two cans of white beans this time. You'll need 3 cans of beans, rinsed well, or you can start with a lb. of dried white beans that have been soaked overnight and cooked.

Put the drained beans into the soup pot with the tomatoes and beef stock, and start to simmer on low.

Brown the chopped onion in 2 tsp. of the olive oil. When the the onion is soft and starting to brown, add the dried oregano, ground cumin, Ancho chile powder, regular chile powder, and Chipotle chile powder (if using) and saute about one minute to release the flavors; then add the spices to the soup pot. (If you're making for kids I might reduce the amount of chile powder and leave out the Chipotle chile powder.)

Add the other teaspoon of olive oil to the pan and cook the ground turkey until it's nicely browned, breaking apart with the turner as you cook.

Add the turkey to the soup pot, deglazing the pan with 1 cup of water and adding that as well. Also add the bay leaves and unsweetener cocoa powder with a pinch or two of salt.

Simmer on low until all the flavors are well combined and the chile is slightly reduced and thickened, about 1 hour, although it can go a little longer. Stir in the chopped cilantro. (Forgot to take a photo of that!) Serve hot, with sour cream and/or grated cheese if desired.

And just for your amusement, here's the original photo of this chili from back in 2007! No idea why the original version looks so much redder than the one I made recently but I might possibly have taken the photo with a flash back in those days.

To use dried beans, soak beans overnight or all day in cold water. Pour out water, add fresh water to cover, and cook beans at a low simmer about 1 1/2 hours, or until soft but not mushy. (Be sure beans are as done as you'd like them, because when you add them with tomatoes they won't soften a lot more.) Drain beans and put in heavy soup pot.

To use canned beans, drain beans into a colander placed in the sink and rinse well with cold water (until no more foam appears.)

Add 1 tsp. more olive oil to frying pan and add turkey. Cook until well done and starting to brown, breaking apart with turner. Add turkey to soup pot. Deglaze frying pan with 1 cup water, scraping any browned bits off bottom of pan, and add to pot.

Add bay leaves, cocoa powder, and salt to the pot. Simmer on low heat until all ingredients are well blended and tomatoes are starting to break apart, about one hour, or a little longer if you prefer. Turn off heat and stir in chopped cilantro if using. Let sit five minutes, then serve. Can be served with sour cream and/or grated cheese if desired

Beans are considered a "good carb" on the South Beach Diet and are approved for any phase, but they're a limited food so use portion control for Phase One.

Nutritional Information?
I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and Kalyn's Kitchen earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

27 comments:

You use a lot of ground turkey where most recipes would call for ground beef. Are you using ground turkey breast, which has almost no fat and not so much flavor, or regular ground turkey? Most of the ground turkey labels I read show that ground turkey that isn't just breast meat has almost as much fat as 85% lean ground beef. If that's the case, why use turkey?

Thanks. I love your blog and have had great success with your recipes!

Hi Susan,I'd love to take credit, but actually I resisted listing my favorite blogs, because I knew some would get left out, so she picked them from my blogroll, plus from the Food Blog Award winners. But it's A-ok with me that she picked you!

Jeanny,I think this is the only recipe I've ever posted with ground turkey, but I'll have to check. I think this was ground turkey breast, which I would only use in a recipe like this where there's a lot of liquid. As far as why use turkey, there are some people who avoid red meat, so it's a good option for them. (I'm not one of them, which is one of the reasons I've never used ground turkey that much.) As far as South Beach, low fat ground beef is just fine, and I normally use the ground beef with less than 10% fat. Glad to hear you're having good success with the recipes.

How funny that I open the paper up today and see your name in the paper. I was just thinking about you the other day. I know I never had you as a teacher but you've always been a role model to me after helping you when you were my sister's teacher. I'm so glad I've found you again. I haven't had much time today to look at your blog but I will. I hope we stay in touch. If I remember correctly the last time we ran into each other it was at a Mary Chapin-Carpenter concert up in the mountains. Norah (Gadd) Baron

This looks so good Kalyn. I saw this in BA and put it on the "back burner" for when I'm not cooking vegan. I love the idea of using the chocolate. Think I might deglaze with beer instead of water. Mr. CC would like that!

I'm becoming a confirmed fan of using cocoa as a spice. I'll have to add it to chili next time. I don't use ground turkey - can't get it here, but our beef is really low in fat so....Congrats on the nice article about you and your blog! 3 - 5 hours a day!?!?!?

Hey Kalyn - this looks so yummy! Chili is such a great easy meal and the chocolate gives it an elegant twist. In a similar-but-opposite way, I've recently gone crazy for chili-infused chocolate cake. It's a great combo!Congrats on your blog mention and on the printer-friendly recipes... one day I hope to figure that out too!

This was REALLY REALLY good - now going to be my go-to chili recipe. The thing with cooking the onions in an excess of spice was amazing. I added minced garlic while cooking the onions, and also a bit of apple cider vinegar to the pot with the tomatoes and beans. Oh, and I used greek yogurt instead of sour cream as a healthy substitute.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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